The need for effective sealing of flanged hardware joints arises in many applications. An example of a typical flanged hardware joint is the junction between a container and a corresponding container lid. Another potential application may be the joining of relatively large tubular sections. The difficulty achieving an effective seal increases for large flanged hardware joints in which the joint components may have a significantly large perimeter. For example, in certain storage applications a container may be configured as a cylindrical container with a diameter of approximately seven to eight feet (or thereabout).
At such diameters (or more generally perimeters as comparable principles would apply to any shape container), it is difficult to achieve adequate sealing with a unitary sealing component. A unitary sealing component of such size may be subject to wear and cracking as it lacks stability and can be likely to move during use, and can be unwieldy to install.
One alternative to installing a unitary sealing component is to generate a substantially uniform sealing element using a sealing process known in the art as Room Temperature Vulcanization (RTV). In RTV sealing, a sealing material is initially applied to the flanged hardware joint in a high-viscous state by spraying, gunning (like a glue gun type application), or like application process. Due to the properties of the RTV material, the material cures over time in exposure to air to form a more solid-state elastomeric seal. Although RTV sealing can provide an effective seal, the process has several drawbacks. RTV sealing can be messy, and the RTV materials may be volatile in the application state requiring protective measures to prevent inhalation by users or combustion. In addition, the RTV material is not reusable rendering the container difficult to maintain. Accordingly, should the need arise to open and re-close a container sealed with RTV, the old RTV material must be scraped away and the RTV process must be performed again in its entirety to close and re-seal the container.
Another option for sealing large flanged hardware joints has been to provide segmented sealing assemblies rather than a unitary sealing component. With dividing the overall sealing structure into segments, each sealing segment is easier to install, and each segment tends to be more stable than a unitary sealing component, reducing movement and associated wear. The boundaries between the segments, however, result in gaps that constitute locations of potential leakage. In conventional configurations, the gaps often are sealed using RTV sealing. Although the amount of RTV sealing is reduced for segmented sealing assemblies as compared to using RTV sealing alone, any use of RTV still suffers to a significant degree from the drawbacks referenced above.